Monthly Archives: March 2016

Airbnb, the popular room-sharing app, has made a plea to the mayors of the largest U.S. cities asking to be taxed. The company’s head of global policy, Chris Lehane, addressed the attendees of the United States Conference of Mayors earlier this year with a proposal to work together to help cities collect tax revenue from the peer-to-peer transactions that occur on its platform.

“According to newly published court documents, Lyft would owe its drivers $126 million in reimbursement expenses for the last four years if the ride-hail service classified them as employees rather than independent contractors,” according to a recent article in the Verge.

Transit systems should be encouraged, rather than threatened, by the proliferation of transportation choices, according to a new report issued by the American Public Transportation Association. Released last week, the report determined that the people who depend most heavily on shared modes of transportation — including ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft, bike sharing, and car-sharing services like ZipCar and Car2Go — are also more likely to rely on public transit.

People who use ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft are more likely to also use public transportation in Washington and other areas, according to a new study from the American Public Transportation Association.

What’s Yours is Mine: Against the Sharing Economy is a painstaking examination of the latest set of companies claiming a chunk of our future. AirBnB, Uber and apps that send you anything from dinner to a cleaner all claim that they’re portals, upon which vendors and customers can “share” (or “buy and sell”, as we’ve called it for thousands of years) their products. At first glance, it’s a utopian vision, which bypasses all the nastiness of Big Business. Yet Slee’s book redraws the landscape in harsher terms, as a group of companies backed by enormously wealthy “old-school venture capitalists” which count themselves out of the rules and regulations that other companies are bound by.

According to Foobooz, Homemade, an app developed in New York City by entrepreneurs Nick Devane and Mike Dee, expands its food-sharing services to Philadelphia today, the first U.S. city outside of New York. In concept, it allows amateur cooks and hobbyists to serve home-cooked foods to app users who are craving a meal, but don’t want to deal with a restaurant. Think of it as Etsy for cooks, only with the promise of a thorough vetting process for the seller.

Since just the beginning of the year, Ford has announced a variety of new ventures outside its traditional lines of business. It’s even launched a partnership with Amazon that will give motorists in-car access to the high-tech company’s voice assistant, Alexa. That will let a motorist remotely control their home’s thermostat and lights or open the garage door.

Google has added a way for users of its Map app to compare at ride-sharing fares with industry giant Uber. Users in certain countries (though not the U.S.) will be able to see which service is cheaper so they can better decide which one to choose. It is an example of the growing amount of transit information available through Google Maps beyond the typical driving directions.

San Diego’s leading car sharing company will soon replace its all-electric vehicle fleet with gas-powered cars due to a lack of charging stations, a symbolic setback for the emission-reduction aspirations of the city’s ballyhooed climate action plan.

Public transit providers across the U.S. shouldn’t shy away from partnerships with app-based companies such as Uber and Lyft to leverage their success and improve on their services, a new study commissioned by the American Public Transportation Association says.

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More about the Sharing Economy

Shared-Use Mobility Center
A public-interest organization working to foster collaboration in shared mobility and help connect the growing industry with transit agencies, cities, and communities across the nation